Arthedain Society

Arthedain has, by tradition, sixty-four noble families. They include seven Great Houses, fifty-six Lesser Houses and, of course, the Royal House. The Ereter (S. "Nobles") are lords to a larger number of Requain Inor—landed knights or gentry. After the devastation of the Second Northern War, King Araphor was obliged to elevate some of the gentry to replenish the numbers of the Ereter, thus narrowing the gap between the two classes. While the King and the Ereter govern the realm as a whole and rule their own lands, the gentry provide local leadership in the countryside. Society in Arthedain is organized around the defense of the kingdom. Requain Heleth, knights who are either landless or in service to an Aratar, act as officers in the military. The Requain Inor and the nobility, with few exceptions, live in defensible castles of good stone and little decoration; from these strongholds, they command the local military effort and manage civil affairs as well. Gondorians, even those from the fortress city of Minas Anor, find Arthadan keeps gloomy and enclosed. The Arthedain maintain that the thick walls of their homes keep joy within as warmly as the cold stones keep the weather out, and, if they laughed more in public, the southerners might believe them. Regardless, duty and discipline are the first things every Arthadan child is taught by his parents and tutors. The northern Dúnedain are not an overtly romantic or passionate people; they marry late, typically choosing a spouse carefully, and treat each child as a rare gem, to be first protected and then sculpted into a worthy member of society, Majority for a Dúnadan occurs at 27 years of age and, if the wars don't take him, he may enjoy a lifetime measuring a century and a half. To make the most of this long lifespan, itself a gift of the Valar, every child is required to receive an education. Study and contemplation, the cornerstones of Dúnadan culture, begin early and are pursued with great intensity. A noble son or daughter is expected, upon majority, to speak three languages fluently, to be able to discourse in those languages onastronomy, history, and herblore, to be able to play a musical instrument, to sing, to handle a sword and bow, and to ride a horse like the Huntsman of the Valar. Male children are virtually guaranteed some military action in their lifetimes, but few are expected to make this their only business. Females of the nobility, who are not expected to go to war, yet do not spend their entire lives raising children as other women do, often make second careers as artists, seers, or healers. This ideal of accomplishment and duty, measured by the highest standards, is one of the sources of Arthedain's success and pride. The lesser Dúnedain of Arthedain also try to live up to these standards. While they begin formal apprenticeships and careers at a much younger age, they are required to study the Elvish classics and all the languages taught to the nobility, all while learning a complex trade. Joy, for the artisan classes, comes from family and work well done; they are freer to dance and laugh then the nobles. Visitors to Fornost who have seen only the grave, impeccable manners the Arthedain, particularly the soldiers, present to outsiders, are sometimes amazed at the Elvish-styled frolics that go on inside the stark stone walls of the city.

The ruling aristocracy of the kingdom of Arthedain is dominated by seven Great Houses, each of which owns considerable property and leads men-at-arms independent of royal forces. The seven Great Houses are, in order of power: Tarma, Eketta, Orro, Hyarr, Emerië, Foro, and Noirin. Each Great House sports its own two-colored banner and distinctive dress. The Lords (S. "Hirereter") of the Great Houses are permanent members of the Royal Council and use their influence with arrogance—a leading cause of the alienation of the nobles of Cardolan that led to the long-ago division of Arnor. Most of the nobles draw their family names from areas of Númenor, from whence they fled with Elendil before the Downfall. The Tarmas, strongest in wealth and influence, rank highly in both sheer numbers and talent, contributing many family members to both the military and civilian sectors of government and to the Council of Seers and the Guardians of the Palantíri. Their chief stronghold, Tarmabar, sprawls over a hilltop south of Lake Evendim instead of being confined within the walls of a keep. The Tarmas, occupying positions of power all across Arthedain, will say that they are its defense. The Eketta clan take their name from the short stabbing sword favored by the Dúnedain, the eket. The Ekettas came to Endor as soldiers during the Númenórean wars of conquest; one of their members traveled north to Nenuial after falling in love with a noblewoman exiled from Númenor's court for her sympathies with the Lords of Andúnië. The two lovers, and those few Ekettas who supported their wayward cousin, settled in the late Second Age on the rocky lands on the northeast shore of Lake Nenuial. Their stronghold, Bareketta, still stands a day's ride from the ruins of Annúminas. The Ekettas were not, strictly speaking, among the families of the Faithful, and this distinction has been a source of both pride and shame for them over the years. Many of Arthedain's military leaders are drawn from their family, hailed as the first into battle and the last to retreat. The five other Great Houses—with the exception of the Tarma clan, who are also traditionally militaristic— view the Ekettas with some alarm. The other families cannot match the influence of the Ekettas or the Tarmas. They can only attempt to shore up their fading powers, frustating the machinations of the two mightier houses by counter-conspiracy. The King, of course, takes advantage of this conflict; the political balance in Arthedain is set accordingly